A Hogwarts Tale
by unknownDocument
Summary: This story is set about a century or so after the inital events of the actual story. The chapter to me is long but I wanted to make it as good as possible. Well known characters will make an intrance later on but not in this chapter. I hope you enjoy it
1. Chapter 1

It had been well over a century since Harry Potter defeated the Dark Lord. Well over a century since people have feared saying the name Voldemort aloud. Although the name registers a sense of fear in those witches and wizards, who for one reason or another was very long-lived. The group of people who had called themselves the Death Eaters were no longer in existence. Almost, if not all of them, were dead. The story of the young boy who had killed the most evil wizard alive had been told from parent to child for generations. The legend was a gripping one; of murder and betrayal, heartache and the worst sort of loss a man could ever hope to endure. Parents had even taken to naming their sons "Harry" in honor of Harry Potter.

When he had died, a statue of him had been erected in the newly rebuilt Ministry of Magic. A solid reminder that one who was pure of heart and had no desire other than to make the world a safer place, no matter what the cost, could change the world for the better. For the greater good. Of course when Harry Potter died, not only had Voldemort died with him, but the need for a champion of the people had as well.

The world was safe again for not only the Wizarding world, but for the non-magical as well. The Muggles who had been tortured and killed for the simple fact of being Muggles, or for being in the area, were now safe from evils that they could not even imagine. All thanks to the sacrifice of a seventeen-year-old boy and his two best friends.

Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ronal Weasly all played a part in the destruction of Voldemort and after his death had gone on to live normal lives and have families of their own. However, those who had been close to them had suffered great losses. Remus Lupin, a dear friend and ex-teacher of theirs had died shortly after his young wife; Nyphadora Tonks had given birth to their son Teddy. Not only had the boy grown up without parents but without a grandfather as well. Nymphadora's father, Ted Tonks, had been killed while on the run, for he was a muggle born and in the new regime that Voldemort had set into place muggle borns were considered dirt and hunted. The now corrupt Ministry thought that Muggle born witches and wizards were not truly capable of doing magic on their own. That they had stolen magical secrets from real witches and wizards, stolen their wands. This of course was completely untrue and idiotic but when a witch or wizard was found to have not magical heritage, they were considered thieves and wiped out. Unfortunately those who happened to be close to Harry, Ron, and Hermione were the first to be hunted.

Also the ones who had been close to Albus Dumbledore suffered a great price. Those who were a part of the Order of The Phoenix were targeted as well. They were seen as enemies of the Ministry of Magic and they openly opposed Voldemort. They lost their lives or had their families destroyed as well. The Weasly family lost a son and had another who had been maimed while trying to protect Harry.

But all of this sadness and bloodshed had, in the end, been worth it in the aspect that thanks to their sacrifices and help, Harry had been able to hunt down the horrible objects, the Horcruxes that Voldemort had created, making him mortal once more and able to be killed. After his death the world returned to a happy and normal peace and for many, many decades was safe.

But peace cannot last forever as history tells us. After the death of Harry Potter, his friends, and generations later after their families had died out, a new evil arose. One who, although this was thought at first to be impossible, was more evil and disturbed than Voldemort. This new evil had been born to a happy family, a loving family, by all accounts, a normal family. And he rose to power quickly.

At the age of seventeen, he had killed more people than he could even count. His name was so feared that his name wasn't even whispered by the brave as Voldemort's had been. He was simply too fearsome for anyone to attempt to speak about him. He had no followers, those would seek to ally were quickly shot down. He was the type who didn't want to share his glory with anyone. And he saw to it that after a few years, no one would try to steal his thunder ever again.

But just because there is a new generation of evil does not mean that there is not a new generation of good. There were hundreds of children born, before this new evil arose, after this new evil arose, while he was in power. And quite a few of these children went to Hogwarts School.

And it was a letter from Hogwarts that was atop the pile of mail that had come through the mail slot of a small house in the British countryside. A letter that the young girl had been excited to received for over a year. When she walked down the stairs to retrieve the mail, she saw the letter on top and let out an excited shriek of a squeal and jumped up and down in the hallway. She took the letter and ran into the sitting room where her mother and father were sitting, her father reading the Daily Prophet and her mother listening to a small radio, both had a relaxed air about them.

"Mum, Dad," she squealed, setting herself between them on the couch and pushing the paper out of her father's hands. "Look, look! It's finally come! It's here, my letter came!" she was bouncing up and down on the couch, almost knocking her father off of the couch. Both of her parents laugh and smiled.

"Delinda, sweetie calm down," her father said putting his hands on his small daughters shoulder and holding her down onto the couch. "Let me see," he took the letter from her and read the front, and made a face. "Hmmm," he opened his mouth to say something but his daughter snatched it back and tore it open.

"Don't say you think it was sent to the wrong address or they're going to put me into wizard kindergarten," she said, mimicking the joke her father was always saying to her. Her mother gave her father a disapproving look and he smiled sheepishly. Delinda poked him in the shoulder and her mother laughed and let Delinda read through the letter and then finally relinquished the paper that had the list of her schoolbooks and robes that she would need.

"Well I guess we'll have to make a trip to Diagon Alley," Delinda squealed happily and continued her bouncing on the couch. Within that hour her mother and father were dressed in their Wizarding best, her father in classy black robes that were crisp and her mother in forest green robes that set her eyes off nicely. Her mother had bought her robes a few months ago when they went to Diagon Ally, other Wizarding houses or went to visit her father at his job at the Ministry.

Delinda's mother walked over to the fireplace, where next to it in a little holder was a small flowerpot that was full of what looked to be gray ashes. Delinda had painted little flowers and houses all over the little flower pot that as full of floo powder. Her mother grabbed a handful and threw it into the fireplace and emerald green flames erupted into the fireplace. Her father was the first person to step into the fire.

"Diagon Alley," he said in a clear voice and his body swirled and vanished in the flames. Her mother ushered Delinda in next.

"Speak clearly ok sweetie," she said as her daughter cleared her throat.

"Diagon Alley," she said in a voice just as clear as her father's was. She felt her body spin like a top and she closed her eyes as fireplace after fireplace swirled past. She was starting to get nauseas when her feet finally hit the ground. She fumbled out of the fireplace and into her father. With a wave of his wand he cleaned the ash and dirt off of his daughter's robes and face and they were only waiting a few seconds before her mother erupted out of the fireplace and cleaned herself with her wand.

It was a quiet few hours as they went from store to store, buying books and robes, and then a pet. Delinda had wanted a cat for years but she fell in love with a barn owl that she saw in the window. She walked into the pet store and the owl flew down and perched itself on her shoulder and there was no doubt that she was going to leave with that owl. Its bright white moon shaped face vanished in her hair as it began to preen her and she giggled. The last thing they had to do was buy a wand.

But it was no longer Olivander whom everyone got their wands from. Having died some time ago and leaving behind no family it was a different wand maker who had a small shop in a corner in Diagon Alley. The wand maker was one of merit if not the blind praise that had been given to Olivander for his masterpieces of magic. But all the same, the wands were of great detail and with care and had never failed anyone who had purchased them.

When the small family walked into the slightly stuffy shop, they were greeted by the sight of hundreds if not thousands of wands in boxes that lined the walls from floor to ceiling and there were no doubt countless more in the room behind the counter. Delinda started to wander the store, looking at all of the boxes of varying lengths and wondered which one would be hers. Which wand would choose her for its own?

There was a shuffling of feet and behind the counter appeared a man who was barely five feet tall. With wispy white hair and a slightly frazzled expression on his smiling face the wand maker by the name of Selkin greeted the family.

"Here for your first wand?" Delinda nodded. Mr. Selkin smiled. "Eleven is a very exciting age, the day you get your wand will be a day, that I hope you will always remember," and with another smile he turned on his heel and started looking through the boxes that were stacked behind him. He trailed his fingers over each of them, looking at the number on the outside of it. He would pull one box from its space causing the row to sink a little lower, open the box and after studying it for a minute or so, would replace the lid on the box and put it back in its original column. He looked around the store for a few minutes before bringing five wands to Delinda.

She walked up and drew one box from the small pile and opened it. The wand inside was a soft brown color, flecked with gold.

"Chestnut and unicorn hair, eleven and a half inches," said Mr. Selkin. "Go ahead dear give it a wave," and she did so. A nearby lamp exploded and Delinda squeaked and immediately began apologizing but the wand maker simply smiled and told her to try another wand. It wasn't long before she had gone through all five of the wands before her and the lamp that he been repaired multiple times was once again standing in hesitant safety. Mr. Selkin disappeared into the back room.

He was gone for a quite a bit of time now, and multiple crashing could be heard before her reappeared covered in dust and a fresh bruise under his eye.

"Here, try this one," he said with a confident smile.

Delinda took the wand and smiled. It felt like an old friend in her hand and when she waved it, nothing exploded. The air simply picked up and swirled around her and ash she waved it she was moving box after box and lifting the lamp up and down. The wand was a pale brown that was darker at the handle and lightest at the very tip.

"Holly, and dragon heartstring, almost fourteen inches," he was smiling. Delinda's mother and father paid for the wand and tried to talk her into putting it back into the box until they got home but she could not be persuaded to let go of it.

When it was finally time to leave Diagon Alley her father chose to Disapperate instead of using the floo network as his arms were laden with the spoils of the days shopping trip. Delinda's mother took her daughter's hand and took her home by Side-Along-Appareation. Once home Delinda found that her father had dug out his old Hogwarts trunk and had put it in her room, her packages set on her bed.

Her parents left her to packing her trunk and setting her owl up in her room while they went into the kitchen and started dinner.

"Do you think it's safe for her to go?" her father Marcus asked. Karen, his wife, simply shrugged her shoulders.

"Hogwarts has always been the safest place for anyone really. Safer than the Ministry and safer than this house. I say we let her go and if anything too terrible starts to happen then we bring her home. I don't want to be the one to tell her she can't go to Hogwarts. She's been looking forward to it for so long," she had a pot full of boiling soup that she was stirring as she spoke and levitated it off of the stove and had it pour itself into bowls on the table as a loaf of bread set itself on the cutting board and a knife began to cut it.

"On September first we'll take her to the train station and hope that Hogwarts is still the safest place on Earth. If anything at least she'll get to see the train," and with that she called her daughter down for dinner.


	2. Chapter 2

"I thought she was going to be happy," Marcus said as his eleven-year-old daughter stood in her room, looking over it one last time, tears in her large brown eyes. Her small shoulders were trembling as she tried to keep in her sobs. Delinda had never been away from home before. Not for any real extended period really. Marcus walked into her room and hugged his small daughter.

"Delinda it's going to be fun. You've been waiting for this for over a year. I'm sorry sweetie but we really have to go. The Hogwarts train leaves at exactly eleven o'clock. We don't want you to miss it. Home will still be here, now come on," he steered her out of the room with a gentle hand and out to the small car in the driveway. It was already packed and Karen was sitting in the passenger's seat. All of her school things were in the trunk of the car, which had been bewitched to have twice the amount of space it normally would have had. Her barn owl was sitting in a seat in the back, her cage shinning in the sunlight.

Delinda slid into the seat next to the owl's cage. Her face was streaked with tears and she was sniffling pitifully. The owl hooted happily at her and clucked her beak softly at her. Delinda stroked the owl's beak. As her father seated himself in the driver's seat, he asked her if she had named the owl yet.

"Not yet…I'm not sure what to name her," they pulled out of the driveway and her father drove smoothly down the street. It took Delinda a few minutes to realize that her father was doing well over the speed limit but the Muggles didn't seem to notice it. In fact, there seemed to be no Muggles near their car at all. Delinda blinked confused and asked her mother why they couldn't see the speeding vehicle.

"You're father's bewitched it. It has a Repelling charm on it and a Disillusionment charm on it so if any vehicle comes to close it's suddenly moved without the muggle knowing and they can't see us at all. Personally I think it's a bit foolish," she gave her husband a pointed look, which he returned with a boyish smile. The drive, which would have taken the better part of an hour in a normal car, took just under twenty minutes but they were still running late when they parked and loaded a trolley with all of Delinda's school things.

There wasn't really time for Delinda to be worried about the portal between platforms nine and ten. Her father simply loped through it as a group of Muggles walked by. Karen and Delinda made their way through as another large throng of Muggles walked by. With her hands on her small daughter's shoulders, she walked behind her and together they vanished through the portal and reappeared on platform nine and three quarters.

Delinda stopped walking for a minute, a bit suddenly and her mother almost bumped into her. Her owl hooting annoyed at the noise. The scarlet steam engine stood shining in glory in a billowing puff of smoke. Delinda's mouth parted in a quiet and awed gasp. Her mother allowed her to stare at the train for a minute and then put a hand on her shoulder and they walked to where her father was standing. Delinda teared up again.

There wasn't even time to tell her not to worry, to be happy and have fun. The train's whistle screeched through the air and started to move. Delinda took her belongings, her owl, hugged her mother and father, receiving kisses from both and hurried onto the train to find an empty compartment. She found one easily, towards the end of the train and once her trunk was safely put away, her owl on the seat next to her, she let herself cry.

She felt embarrassed to do it; she was probably the only child on the train to do it. However, there had never been a time where she had been without her mother and father. They never let her out of their sight and she liked it to be honest. She felt special and happy knowing that she went everywhere with people who loved her. But in this empty compartment, on a huge train full of strangers she felt more alone than she ever had before.

She didn't cry long, she didn't have the chance. Before she could work herself into a really good cry the door to the compartment slid open and in the doorway stood a boy, who looked to be the same age as she was. He looked afraid really; a small and mousy boy with a mop of shaggy brown hair, bright blue eyes and a small button nose. He smiled at her at invited himself into the compartment and sat on the seat opposite Delinda, tucking his trunk away and setting his own pet, a great horned owl, next to him.

"Hi, my names Gavin, Gavin Hall," he smiled at her. Delinda tried to return the smile but her lips gave a feeble twitch. "What's your name?"

"Delinda Turner," she said. Her voice wasn't strong but she was still upset. Gavin seemed to sense it.

"It's a bit scary isn't it? Being on this big train and going away from home?" Delinda nodded. "Its ok though, once you make friends everything is fine and you aren't afraid anymore! At least that's what my mum told me. I'll be your friend that way you won't have to be afraid anymore," he grinned at his own stroke of genius and Delinda stared at him then smiled. Maybe he was right. Having someone with such a bright personality to talk to her made her feel much better. She didn't feel lonely and no longer had the urge to cry.

After meeting Gavin the train ride was much more bearable and even though it took a few hours, Delinda hardly found herself bored or irritated with the lack of pace of their ride. The cloud steadily grew darker and soon it was raining, huge fat droplets slammed into the train's windows. The snack trolley ambled down the aisle outside of the compartments and children of varying ages were clustered around it. Almost all of them were wearing non-descript black robes.

Gavin returned to the compartment only to rummage through his trunk for his robes and left to find one where he could change. Delinda changed into her robes and her nerves instantly frayed. She was terrified. Soon they would be getting off the train in Hogsmead; her father told her that's where the stop was. Then they would be carted across a great black lake by boats. There was supposed to be a giant squid that lived in the lake but it had been there when her parents had gone. Supposedly anyway. It was said that the giant squid inhabited the lake in Harry Potter's days at Hogwarts. There was no way that the squid could still be alive.

Once the train came to a complete stop, the rain had turned into a slight sprinkle and all of the students milled out of the train. Their cargo was going to be brought up separately from them. When Delinda stepped out into the damp night she was amazed to see just how many students there actually were. Of children that appeared to be here, age there were easily over one hundred of them. There were older children as well, who towered over the new youngest and gave orders to stand here, or walk there. Eventually all of the children were being led away by a man who, at first none had noticed.

He was a small man with a slight frame. He honestly looked as if a good stiff wind came by it would blow him away never to be seen again. Beside him was what appeared to be a mastiff of some sort. However, even the dog appeared to be sick. He was small, his fur hung around him in great folds, and his eyes were beady, watery and almost completely covered by cataracts. It was the saddest dog that Delinda had ever seen. The only reason the children even knew that the man was there was because he was holding a lantern that was almost half his size.

"First years over here," he called in a wheezing voice. "First years, please, please this way," the children wandered to him, giving the dog a wide berth as they could; an awful smell was emanating from the animal and none of them wanted the scent to linger on their clothing. Eventually all of the first years were standing before him in an amorphous blob and he walked away, leading the way with his large lantern, leading the way to the black lake.

Delinda's stomach did flips. She watched as four students settled into their boats and they drifted away from the edge of the lake, across its middle and into a heavy mist that was hanging in the air. The clouds had thickened and darkened, blotting out the stars that had been adding their feeble light to the light of the lantern. When she moved to sit into a boat a hand touched her shoulder. She spun on the spot to see Gavin grinning at her.

"Let's sit together," he was excited and grabbed he hand, sitting her in the boat and putting himself next to her. Two more students, one boy and one girl, both looking just as afraid as Delinda, sat and the boat chugged away though no one had done anything to make it move. The weather quickly soured and the sky tore open, belching thunder and dropping raindrops so fat that some of them stung the children. But the worst thing was the water, it turned rough so fast that the girl who had joined them was thrown into the icy, black water. Delinda screamed, Gavin and the other boy in the boat rushed to the side and tried to grab the girl as she went down but the just barely missed her. She was not gone very long, around a minute after she fell in; the girl was gently pushed back into the boat by the giant tentacle of what could only be a squid.

The boat ride up to the castle was subsequently less exciting except for the sudden outburst of angry sobbing from the poor girl who had fallen into the lake. Once the boats had been emptied of their occupants, they followed the small man with his bobbing lantern into the castle. They were swiftly met by a stern looking woman. Her face was not ugly but the set line of her mouth was harsh and frightened any thoughts of speech straight from all of the young student's minds.

"First years, before we head into the Great Hall for the sorting ceremony I have an announcement I would like to make," she cleared her throat and pulled herself up another few inches making herself even taller. "My name is Professor McGonagall," she was a descendant of the McGonagall who had taught at Hogwarts when Harry Potter had gone to Hogwarts. "And I am the head of Gryffindor house and will not stand for any rude behavior. No talking out of turn, nothing disruptive at all. Am I understood? If any single one of you puts a toe out of line you will have to deal with me and I will see to it that your first night in Hogwarts will not be an enjoyable one." All of the children gulped and nodded quickly. McGonagall led the frightened students into the Great Hall.

The four house tables were already full of students who were watching the newcomers with wide eyes. All of the new first years were corralled into the center of the room between two of the tables. Ahead of them was the massive staff table that was packed with teachers of all types of teachers, some of questionable species as many of the students could not figure out what the people were. At the very center of the staff table where the headmaster should have been seated, the massive ornate chair was empty.

Professor McGonagall reappeared with a stool and a very old patchy hat. She sat it upon the stool and the hat opened its mouth, took a deep breath, but shut his mouth and slumped on the stool. The students watched it curiously. McGonagall pulled out a roll of parchment from her sleeve, unrolled it, and began to call out names in alphabetical order.

Gavin was called somewhat early as his last name began with an 'H'. He gave Delinda a confident smile and walked up to the stool, plopping on it with a happy grin on his face. McGonagall plopped the hat onto his mop of hair. The hat hmmed for a minute or two before taking a deep breath and bellowing out, "Gryffindor!" for all of the room to heat. The Gryffindor table erupted into mad cheers and stood to clap as Gavin walked over to the table. He gave Delinda a thumbs-up and sat in an empty space.

Delinda's stomach was in knots. She wanted to be in Gryffindor. Not because it was supposed to be the best house, or because it was famous for being the house that Harry Potter had been in. She wanted to be placed in that house because the only person she knew was in that house. She bounced on the balls of her feet waiting for her named to be called and when it did; her stomach gave such a violent jerk that she actually made noise.

The walk up to the stool seemed to her like a walk to her execution. The walk seemed to be the longest distance she had ever had in her life. When she perched on the uncomfortably warm seat, she was shaking. The hat smelled of old stale licorice and mold and it thumped on her head in a very uncomfortable manner. The hat instantly perked up.

"My, my, my, it's been a long time since I've had a chance to place a mind like yours. Very interesting, very interesting indeed, "the hat sounded greatly amused.

"Um, what exactly is so amusing?" she asked the hat warily in a whisper. The hat chuckled quietly.

"I can see you fitting perfectly into two houses my dear girl. You have the bravest heart I have come across in a long time, such care for your friends, such valor, and a mind the likes I can honestly say I have never seen. And you have a thirst for power that has rivaled many of the wizards I have had the pleasure of placing. You would do exemplary in Slytherin my dear girl, exemplary indeed," Delinda shuddered with fear and teared up.

"But I don't want to be in Slytherin," she whined to the hat quietly. "I don't want to, I won't," she complained. Her voice was high pitched and annoyingly squeaky and the hat actually winced.

"Why? Because all of the, quote un-quote bad wizards have been in Slytherin?" the Sorting Hat was obviously annoyed. Delinda shook her head, almost toppling the hat to the floor.

"No, because the only friend I have is in Gryffindor and I don't want to be in any other house. That's why. I won't go, you can't make me," she said vehemently. The hat chuckled and then laughed, yelling Gryffindor amidst his howling laughter. The Gryffindors, although confused by the laughter, cheered and clapped as Delinda ran to the table and sat down next to Gavin.

The rest of the sorting went swiftly although there were a few disgruntled murmurs from the tables as they became increasingly more hungry. When the sorting was done and the tables had filled with food the massive room was filled with a low roar of conversation. Delinda and Gavin were mesmerized by the food that materialized out of thin air.

There were so many types of food that that neither of them knew where to start. Eventually they both just started loading up on whatever food they could get their hands on and began to shovel it in with great gusto. Being so afraid and upset for the entire day had really worked an appetite up for Delinda. Apparently being happy did the same thing to Gavin.

The feast lasted for about an hour. A gong-like tone filled the room and everyone turned to see Professor McGonagall was standing ahead of the staff table, lowering her wand.

"Before we let you off to go to your warm, waiting beds there is something I must tell you. The Astronomy tower has suffered structural damages and is not safe to be in or around. It was cursed with a strong bit of dark magic and we have yet to raise the curse from it. All students are banned from entering the stairwell that leads up to the tower. We've already had accidents and a fatality, we don't want anymore. Now off to bed," the tables were cleared and the students rose from the tables.

The Gryffindors fell into a line behind a tall boy and walked up the many stairwells, some moving some not, to the Gryffindor common room. The portrait of the fat lady, still hanging on the wall smiled and greeted them all cheerfully. The password was "Gurdy Root".

The common room was pleasantly warm from the roaring fire in the fireplace. There were chairs and tables and comfortable looking windowsill seats but no one seemed to care about them. The boys went up to the left and the girls went to the right to their appropriate dormitories. Delinda was pleased to see that her trunk was at the foot of one of the four-poster beds and her owl's cage was atop it. She knew that her owl would be in the owlry safe and sound.

She changed into her pajamas; crawled into her bed and dropped off to sleep the instant her head reached the pillow.


End file.
